Hiking duckabush Trails - Part 1

Along Duckabush river road off highway 101, there are three trailheads. Ranger hole trail #824, then continuing on as FR-2510 you next come to the Duckabush valley river trail # 803, and finally after several switchbacks in the forest road, there is the Murhut falls trail #828. There is a regular parking area at the Intorrem cabin which is also a rental cabin for the national forest colocated with the trailhead for the Ranger hole trail.

The Ranger hole trail is a nice hike through the woods to the fishing hole on the duckabush creek. You hike about a mile through the old growth rainforest, which is as humid as one would suspect on a fairly level trail, that only gains and loses a little until nearly the end where the trail goes from elevation 300 feet to near sea level where in past ice ages the duckabush river had iced up and gouged out about 300 feet of earth by about 3/4 of a mile wide gouge as the duckabush glacier in the last 100 ice ages, once ever 20,000 to 60,000 years has grinded down to hood canal it's way to the ocean, the ground which before the ice ages was about 300 feet less shallow.

It's a delightful walk to the creek, and not steep except for the last few hundred yards stretch before you reach the stream.

The duckabush stream runs clear as any mountain stream, and is the spawning ground for many varieties of trout and salmon.

When we finished hiking this trail, we decided that we wanted to hike some further, so we went to the Murhut falls trail further down FR-2510.

It was rainy the day we hiked this trail, but fortunately it was a slow rainfall.

The Murhut falls trailhead doesn't really have any parking, so one needs to park along the trail near the trailhead.

On this hike the trail leads higher for about 600 feet before one reaches the falls.

The trail goes along for a mile to the falls.

This is a very popular trail, and the falls are a nice view to behold.